Inhibin : purification and characterization

The aims of the studies described in this thesis were to purify and characterize inhibin from ovarian follicular fluids. The first objective was an extension of the studies by Jansen et al .. , (1981) who had partially purified inhibin from bovine ovarian follicular fluid (bFF) and made some preliminary observations on its physico-chemical characteristics, mainly based on its behaviour in chromatographic systems used in the purification studies. From the point of view of studying the role of inhibin in human reproduction and for its possible clinical application, it appeared more interesting to purify and characterize inhibin from human ovarian follicular fluid (hFF).. The partial purification of inhibin from bFF and hFF represents a major section of the work described in this thesis.. These studies are described in Chapter 3 and Appendix papers 1 and 2 .. We have used partially purified preparations from bFF to obtain preliminary data on an inhibin radioimmunoassay system and to characterize crude and partially purified inhibin-containing preparations using immunological techniques. These experiments have been described in Chapter 4. and Appendix paper 3. In Chapter 5 a comparison is made with recently published data on inhibin from other comparable sources (i.e. ovarian follicular fluids). The introductory Chapter 2 will deal with the historical development of the inhibin concept~ the assay systems employed by various laboratories, the putative physiological significance of inhibin and a summary of the literature on the purification and characterization of inhibin from male and female gonadal fluids and tissues of male and female animals